Hello – and a very warm welcome to my blog. Please don’t be shy about adding comments. I love to read other people’s thoughts on things.
My blog began as part of a philosophy module at university, called ‘Being Bad’. The purpose was to examine the meaning of ‘bad’ behaviour. The course has finished but my interest in blogging hasn’t.
I’m a wannabe writer with a degree in English and Creative Writing from a university in the West Midlands.

Sunday, 14 June 2009

It is amazing what people will do for a bit of fun. The world nettle eating championship took place in Dorset yesterday. The competition began in 1986 when two farmers had a dispute about who had the longest stinging nettles in his fields. Farmer Williams vowed to eat any nettle longer than his – and so this weird activity began.Now people come from all over the world to take part in this annual event at the Bottle Inn.The rules are quite simple – the winner is the person who has the most denuded two foot stalks at the end of an hour.Beer is provided to help the vegetation slip down, and cheating is severely frowned on.

Is this masochistic nettle fest a new variant of self-harm?

I don’t feel brave enough to try this out in the name of research – but if any contestants see this blog posting, please feel free to tell us what nettle eating is really like - we are intrigued, and would love to know more about it.